At present, liquid specimen are usually collected in a container and covered with a lid and then send to the lab for analysis or put aside for later analysis.
It is often desired to divide a specimen into several aliquots (doses) so that each aliquot can be tested for different characteristics: for example one aliquot may be tested for enzymes, chemistry etc, and another—for culturing microorganism for count or identity.
For example, after at least one aliquot for a biochemistry test has been extracted, the remaining sample in the cup may be transferred to a bacteriological labwhere the lid has to be removed for extracting at least one additional aliquot and the test is done directly from the main cup, for example by using a dipslide—covered with semi solid culture media—which is dipped into the remaining sample, or a bacteriological loop is immersed into the sample and then cultured over agar plate.
Sampling for bacteriology test involves the following steps:
Removing the lid—using both hands
Putting the lid on the bench (upside sown)
Performing the test of choice
The first two steps although simple—are hazardous as the liquid (e.g. urine) sample may be heavily contaminated, moreover, droplets from the lid may drop on the bench and the risk of contamination is increased.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,605 provides a specimen sampling device that collects a liquid specimen and segregates an aliquot of it away from the remaining portion of the specimen. The segregation is accomplished by closing the lid of the container after the sample collection. The aliquot is held within a separate compartment which may be comprised of an evacuated tube located within the container
U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,404 describes a liquid collection container and a lid having a cannula and a needle member which extends into the lower end of the container and which cannula projects through the lid so as to enable to pierce the stopper of an air evacuated tube
U.S. Pat. No. 6,054,099 discloses a sampling container having a lid with an aperture capped by a cap having integral hinge.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,145 discloses a sampling container having a lid with an aperture capped by a cap having an assembly hinge.
Non of said Patents discloses a sampling container having in one device both sampling arrangements of a port for extracting an aliquot without removal of the lid by receiving and piercing an evacuated tube, and an aperture with a cap, for extracting an aliquot by immersing a sampling probe such as a dipslide or a bacteriological loop through the aperture and into the sample, without removal of the lid.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,009 to Ratajczak et. al. discloses a sampling container having a lid (cover) 14 with a sampling port 22 and a removeable specimenn extractor 24 installed therein allowing for receiving an evacuated sampling tube (specimen vial) 34 for extracting a sample without removing the lid (cover) 14. A protrusion 38 is provided in the sample port 22 for engagement with the sample cup 26 of the removeable specimen extractor 24 for holding it in place until its removal is desired. According to Ratajczak et. al. it is possible to make use of both sampling arrangements, i.e. evacuated tube and a sampling probe to be immersed into the sample, without removal of the lid. There is a disadvantage however in Ratajczak invention, in that the order of sampling is predetermined such that samples to be extracted through evacuated tube should be extracted first, while samples to be extracted by immersing a sampling probe (i.e. without removal of the entire lid) could be performed only after removal of the removeable specimen extractor 24. Furthermore, in Ratajczak et. al. the sampling port 22 is covered by a threaded cap 20, which its removal and placing back between insertion of sampling probes (i.e. after discarding the removeable sample extractor 24) normally requires the use of both user hands. Actually, the lid (cover) 14 in Ratajczak et. al. is provided with a weight 46 at its bottom, to allow removing and placing the lid (cover) 14 on a horizontal surface 44 while assuring that the removed cover always rests on the horizontal surface in the orientation illustrated in FIG. 4 of Ratajczak et. al., thus avoiding a contact between the extraction tube 30 and the surface 44. This arrangement emphasizes the problem with the device of in Ratajczak et. al., which does not allow for taking samples in the two different sampling methods simultaneously without removing the lid.